Around Dodge City and in the territory on west, there is just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with the U.S. Marshal and the smell of gun smoke.
Gun Smoke, starring William Conrad, the story of the violence that moved west with young America, and the story of a man who moved with it.
I'm that man, Matt Dillon, the United States Marshal, the first man they look for and the last they want to meet. It's a chancey job, and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Marshall! Marshall Dillon!
Yeah, wow, morning Cyrus, how have you been?
Oh, probably wrecking, Marshall. Rheumatism is plaguing me some.
Oh?
At my time of life, a man's got to expect a few miseries. Are you heading for your office, are you?
Yeah, sure I am.
Well, I just thought maybe we could sit and talk, Spill.
Oh, come on.
I don't get into town too often, Marshall.
Yeah, I know that.
I just thought we'd sit and talk.
Oh, I see. Things all right out at the farm?
Oh, yes, yes, same as usual. Farmers don't change much. You get a good crop one year and a bad one another, but all evens out in the long run.
Yeah, I guess it does. Now go ahead.
Thank you, Marshall.
Morning, Mr. Dillon.
Ah, Chester, you know Cyrus here, don't you?
Sure, how are you, Mr. Hutton?
Fine, fine, Chester. My land, I didn't hardly recognize you at first. We don't see you in town very often.
No, the place keeps me pretty well tied down.
Have a chair, Cyrus.
Oh, thank you, Marshall.
Ah, it seems good to sit. I ain't getting any younger.
Well, I guess none of us are.
Mr. Dillon, I fetched the mail up from the depot there on your desk.
Oh, thanks.
Wasn't nothing important to those I could do.
I'll look at it later. Say, you haven't got any coffee, have you?
I got some brewing.
Will it be all right if I whittle, Marshall?
Well, sure, go ahead.
Seems to help a man to talk. Whittling and talking just go together somehow.
Yeah. What was it you wanted to talk about, Cyrus?
Oh, nothing exactly. Just talk, so.
Ah, I see.
This is going to mush up your floor some.
Oh, well, that's all right, Mr. Huggins. I've got to bloom it out later, anyhow.
That's one thing Bertha never stands for.
Bertha figures the barn or out in the yard is a place to whittle.
How is Bertha?
Fine. She's fine. We've been together a long time, Marshall, me and Bertha.
Thirty-seven years we've been married. That's a long time.
Ah, it sure is.
Married back in Ohio. Then we went down to East Texas for a while and come on up here later.
Ah, been a lot of changes in them years.
Yeah, not nice, just.
Weren't no town here at all when they first come to Dodge, just the fort.
Then later a trading post.
Buried our boy here the second year.
Used to grow corn down in the bottom land and sell it to the garrison at the fort.
And he's one of the Indians did to get it first.
Yes, sir, it is. Been a lot of changes.
Yeah.
Uh, Cyrus, you didn't come clear into town just to sit and talk about the old days, did you?
I ain't doing what you mean, Marshall.
I think you do.
Thirty-seven years we've been together. Through better and worse.
Finest woman that ever lived.
Marshall, she left me.
She what?
Birthday. She's run off. Disappeared. Without so much as to buy your needs.
Cyrus, that doesn't sound like birth.
She did. Woke up one morning and she wasn't there.
I kept thinking she'd come back, but she ain't.
Well, maybe she's visiting one of the neighbors.
No, they all been by. The ones she met at.
Well, there must be some reason, Cyrus. She just wouldn't leave you. She'll be back.
That's what I hoped. It's mighty lonely on the place without Bertha. I couldn't even go on without her.
And the neighbors, man, they figured I ought to come tell you about it. So that's what I done.
Well, how long has she been gone?
Three weeks.
Now just listen a minute, if you will. I've got a little story to tell you.
Well, it's not so little. It's sort of a tall tale. It's about Camp Morgan. Ever hear of him?
Well, he was one of the legendary heroes of Oklahoma, or to be more specific, of the oil industry.
Seems it was Morgan who first discovered oil in them parts.
Now, folks say that old Morgan didn't need divining rods and such to show him where the oil was.
No, sir. He'd just follow his nose. Why, he'd just sniff his way across the field.
And when he found the right smell coming up out of the ground, that's where he'd plant his well.
Oh, Camp Morgan didn't need any help planting that well either.
No, sir. He was his own crew, old Morgan was.
Camp would dig down as far as he could reach.
Then he'd unlimber his sharps and shoot a hole through the bottom of the pit.
And talk about fast. Why, that boy would have his derrick up and his oil tanks built before the oil had time to reach the surface.
Oh, he was a goer, he was.
One time he dug a well so deep that it come out on the other side of the world, right into the middle of a rubber plantation.
Down around Brazil it was.
For days that well spouted pure rubber.
A man from Akron, Akron, Ohio, that is, took it off Morgan's hands at a nice little profit for old oil nose.
Yes, sir. Morgan was tops in the oil field, never brought in a dry hole but once.
Camp wasn't one to lose, though. You can bet your bottom dollar on that.
He took that old dry hole, sawed it into lengths, and sold every last one of them to Kansas farmers for fence post holes.
Kind of hard to believe, isn't it?
Say, isn't it nice being citizens of a country where you can laugh and talk about things free as a breeze, and write and read and worship, too?
Yes, sir. Maybe you don't think about it much, but you should.
Now, just take it easy, mister.
Uh, come on, how about another little drink, sweetheart?
No, not right now. You'll have to excuse me.
Yeah, don't be like that, sweetheart.
Sorry, but a friend of mine just came in.
Well, I'm a friend of yours, too, you know.
That's one way of putting it. See you later, mister.
Yeah, now, I've been spending good money on you.
Evening, Matt.
How are you, Kitty?
You here to talk, drink, and force the law or propose marriage?
What talk will do, I guess.
Well, let's sit down.
Where have you been for the last two days?
Tried to find a woman.
Well, in that case, Matt.
Oh, no, no, this is a particular woman.
I'm fairly particular at times.
Well, you're not sixty years old, though.
Good of you to notice.
And your name's not Brother Huggins.
Oh, only, of course. I heard she disappeared.
Yeah, disappeared's right.
Chester and I have checked every possible way of leaving Dodge City,
and as far as we can find out, she's still got to be here somewhere.
But where?
We even followed up the chances she might have hired a wagon or a buggy.
Maybe horseback.
Nah, she's sixty years old, Kitty. And she's in bad health, too.
Well, doesn't her husband, what's his name?
Cyrus.
Doesn't he know anything about her?
No, just that he woke up one morning and she was gone.
It was over three weeks ago. Nobody's seen her since.
That's strange. Matt, you don't suppose Cyrus might have, well...
Oh, no, there's no reason to think anything like that.
No, I guess not. Imagine he's pretty broke up over here.
He sure acts like it. You know, Kitty, he seems ten years older all of a sudden.
He talks vague, half-bobby.
My golly, a man steps out just long enough to deliver a baby,
and he finds somebody trying to steal his girl.
He's not trying, Doc.
More is the pity.
And you're not my girl, Kitty. More is the pity.
Oh, why haven't you ever asked me?
Oh, you mind if I sit down here, Matt?
Yeah.
Seems to me you're already sitting, Doc.
Yeah, so, uh...
Well, Kitty, the last thing in the world you need is a broken down old cow town saw bones.
What do I need, Doc?
Well, not me.
Oh, and not this hard-headed, battered-up excuse for a lawman, either.
I thought he was in pretty fair shape.
Oh, pretty dope. He's got so many bullets in him, if you drop him in the water, he'd sink like a rock.
You don't say.
Sure, he'd say anything to keep him buying a beer.
Well, now, I just came out of it, Matt.
Not the way you've been letting my patience disappear on me.
Oh, you mean Berka Huggins? Was she a patient of yours, Doc?
Well, I don't know if I'm to think of it, Kitty. Maybe that's why she ran off. Self-preservation.
She better not have done any running. Not in her condition.
Oh, that was a bad, Doc.
It was bad enough. What's wrong with it, Doc?
It's easier to say what isn't.
Oh, I suppose too many years in the prairie sums it up.
Too many 16-hour work days, crop failures, too many nights awake in Indian country.
Well, it's sure no country for a woman, all right.
It's no country for a human being.
So I think I'll get out of it. I'll just marry Kitty here and I'll go back and live in Boston.
Don't tempt me, Doc.
Ah, you'll never leave Kitty anymore, and I will learn, Doc, here.
I guess. Anyway, I don't think I'd be very welcome in Boston.
Oh, well, I'd like to know why not.
Thanks, Doc.
Well, the beer's on the house, boys.
I'll go bring it.
Well, what do you think's happened to Mrs. Huggins, man?
Ah, beats me, Doc. Not a soul in town as seen in the last three weeks.
Not since the morning Sarah's woke up and found her gone.
Well, it seems to me he's acting kind of strange about her.
Well, he's pretty broken up about it, naturally.
Well, yesterday morning I saw him on the street and I asked him how she was.
He said fine.
And then he walked right on down to your office and reported her missing.
Well, Sarah's isn't getting any younger, Doc.
But I asked him to leave her come and see me, and he said he'd tell her.
Ah, you know, I've got some medicine from St. Louis that I thought just might help her.
Mr. Dillon?
Oh, yeah, what is it, Chester?
Mr. Jonas, you're at the General Store. He wants you to come over there right away.
Uh-huh.
About Mrs. Huggins.
What?
There's some fellow come in there trying to sell some secondhand clothes and things,
and Mr. Jonas recognizes the stuff. He belongs to Mrs. Huggins.
Oh, good evening, Marshal.
Right glad to see you.
I am for a fact.
Is that him, Mr. Jonas?
Yeah, standing there by the stove. He's getting restless, too.
Had a hard time keeping him here.
Well, I'll see what he's up to.
Careful, Marshal. He's wearing a gun under his coat.
So am I.
Evening, stranger.
Howdy.
You're new in town, aren't you?
Just going through.
Now, when'd you get here?
I ain't sure that's any of your business, mister.
I'm Matt Dillon. I'm a U.S. Marshal.
That make you any more sure?
I didn't know you was a lawman.
When did you hit Dodge?
Just today. You got no reason to jump in.
I haven't yet. What's your name?
Hody Peele.
Look, I ain't done nothing.
You got nothing to worry about.
Just stand still, buddy.
Here.
What'd you take my gun for?
Might save us both a little trouble.
I ain't gonna stand for this, Marshal.
I'm a law-abiding citizen with a wife and a family.
No? Where are they?
We've been camping about five miles up the river.
I rode into town alone.
We've been looking for some land to take up.
Homesteader.
If I can find a decent piece of land, I am.
How long you been camped up there?
Around three weeks, I guess.
Uh-huh.
Come on over here to the counter.
All right, Marshal.
I don't know what you're thinking, Marshal, but you're wrong.
I ain't done nothing.
This'll stop, Mr. Jones.
Yeah, that's right, Marshal.
Most of the things, here, like these turtle shell combs
and hand mirror and some of the clothes could be anybody's,
but this wool shawl and this needlepoint shopping satchel,
I've seen Miss Huggins in town with these time and time again.
So that's what it's about.
Are you sure, Mr. Jones?
Well, of course I'm sure.
She's had them things for years.
Marshal, this stuff was a gift to us.
I didn't steal it.
Some farmer stopped us when we drove past his place
and gave it to us.
You know his name?
I didn't ask.
It's about eight, ten miles west of town,
a place with two white barns.
Uh-huh, uh-huh.
That's the Huggins place, Marshal.
It's an old fella.
Talked kind of crazy.
That was about three weeks ago.
We cut off the trail and drove into his pasture to water our team,
and he was there by a little spring.
Doing what?
He was busy digging a hole.
We didn't hardly notice him at first.
Then he took us up to the house and gave us his stuff.
Did you see a woman around the place?
No, just him.
Dirt from head to foot.
Kind of funny, that hole he was digging.
I remember thinking at the time it looked sort of like a grave.
This land is your land, this land is my land, this land was made for you and me.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away, and it keeps Washington's economy healthy, too.
A leader in apple production raising one-fourth of our nation's supply,
the state of Washington could almost be called a Gourmet State,
for she also leads the West Coast in seafood,
and her five famous types of salmon lead the world in canned fish commerce.
So proud of their salmon are Washingtonians that a visitor to Seattle,
the Pearl of the Northwest, can send home an ice-packed chinook
from the waterfront fish and oyster company.
Equally pride-inspiring are the snow-capped Olympics,
the lofty Cascades, and Mount Rainier.
But tourists must be content with sending pictures of these.
For all of its contributions to the rest of the United States,
Washington remains a hometown state,
with Treaty Day powwows in January on the Indian reservations,
March's ski patrol race in Snoqualmie Pass,
the spring festivals of rhododendrons, daffodils, and apple blossoms,
and of course a salmon-fishing derby in September.
But every month, Washington is the evergreen state.
Well now, this is quite a surprise, Marshall.
Morning, sirs.
Hi, Mr. Huggins.
Oh, can't complain.
Come on, get out of there and rest yourselves.
Might be good to see you.
Oh, thanks.
Come on up to the house and I'll have Bertha fix you some coffee.
What?
You'll have Bertha fix coffee?
Sure will.
Well, she'd be awful upset if she knew you'd stopped by
and I didn't even bring you up to the house.
Well, but your wife's gone, Mr. Huggins.
Gone?
Well, that's what you told me a couple of days ago.
Oh, you must be mistaken, Marshall.
You came to my office, sirs,
and you told me that she was missing, that she'd run off.
Well, Bertha wouldn't do a thing like that.
We've been together 37 years.
Well, then she's here, she's up at the house.
No, no, she's not.
But you just said...
She went to visit her sister in San Antone.
Oh, I see.
I forgot about it.
It just slipped my mind for a minute.
Sirs, you've got a spring over there in the pasture.
I'd like to take a look at it.
Well, it's just the spring, Marshall.
You mind walking over with us?
No, I don't mind.
By golly, it's funny about me forgetting Bertha went to visit her sister.
Yeah.
And you say I come into town a few days ago
and told you she'd run off?
That's right.
Golly, it looks like my memory's starting to go on me.
Maybe.
Funny thing, when something had happened way back, I remembered fine.
Like Bertha and me was talking the other day about when we first got married.
Remembered it just like it was yesterday.
And that was 37 years ago.
It's funny.
Yeah.
Things the last three weeks, though, they're kind of clouded over for some reason.
When did your wife leave, Sirs, to go visit her sister?
About three weeks ago.
Well, here's the spring.
Yeah.
Let's take a look over here.
No, I don't want to.
Let's go.
All right, Marshall.
Did you dig this grave, Sirs?
Why, I don't know what you mean.
That wooden headboard read what it says.
I don't see it.
I don't know what you're talking about.
It says Bertha Huggins, beloved wife of Cyrus Huggins,
married 37 years.
Bertha's in Shannon tone.
I don't know why anybody'd put that up.
Cyrus, you can't go on living on a dream.
You better tell me about it, huh?
Cyrus.
Well, it was in the night it happened.
She was feeling poorly for weeks.
That morning when I woke up, she was already gone,
laying there cold.
I put her in and it went out of my mind, Marshall.
So you buried her.
You gave away her clothes and things, huh?
I started pretending, I guess, like she went off some place
and was coming back.
Pretty soon I started believing it.
I had to believe it.
I couldn't even think of going about without her.
I just couldn't face it.
But at the same time I knew, of course, in a way that she...
Marshall.
Yeah.
Marshall, she's dead.
She's really dead.
And that's the truth.
Come on, Chester.
Gunsmoke, produced and directed by Norman McDonald,
stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
The script was specially written for Gunsmoke by Les Frutchfield,
with editorial supervision by John Meston.
The music was composed and conducted by Rex Corey.
Sound patterns were by Ray Kemper and Bill James.
Featured in the cast were Parley Bayer as Chester,
Howard McNeer as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.
George Walsh speaking.
Join us again next week for another specially transcribed story on Gunsmoke.
This is the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.
Thank you.